, 1887-09-25

In a former time the OF this
splendid harbor was but second in
America, and no spot facing the aggres
sion of an old world is SO historically
sacred to coastwise thrilling scene and in
cldent. Percy and Clinton. Howe and
DEsta'n g. Wallace and Burgoyne, all
brought dismay or gladness here; while
history, legend and romance of still earlier
days glow with piracy, prize and priva-
teersmen, around which a breezy and
stirring renaissance in American tale tell
ing might be haply built. In Brenton's
Cove there is q half hours pleasant idl-
ing when the cat yawl skipper will spin
you many an olden yarn. and at Fort
Adams, where an interesting stroll mag
be begun, the real seward outlook of the
noble old city is first enjoyed. From this
point a days SCATTERING is delightful, as
are the clamberinPs from cliff to shore
past old Castle Hill and its dimly distin-
guished revolutionary ramparts, around
to the southernmost portion of the island,
Graves Point. From here, along the
whole southern reach of the island, and
thence by the eastern shore for miles,
there are point and promontory, ledge and
reef and cove and bay innumerable at
your feet, with noble villas, grounds and
avenues behind you, and countless craft
far and near upon the Sound, with their
white sails cleaning against a horizon of
blending sky and sea. Soft and peaceful
as may be the sea, this whole shore line is
forever soundful with its hoarse songs and
%refrains, the more enhancing for the sense
of beauty and rest so near their rythmic
alarums; I'M when one stands by the far
famed Spouting Rock, and. entranced by
a scene of shore and sea so full of beauty
and resttulness that the eye and sense are
filed with its completeness as never be
fore, the muttered thunders of the surf
within the caves innermost caverns are
portent with all the magic and terror of
the furied deep beyond.
All along the eastern shore is
GRANDEUR, BEAUTY, REST.
Taking into no account what wealth
and art have done for the historic billed
city behind, you cannot elsewhere come
upon such wealth of scene in shore and
bay, island and reef, headland and light
beach is gained, recall all reaches of wave
whipped ocean your eyes have ever rested
upon, and there will be none that ever
pictured to you the inconceivable, if un-
seen, magic of Newport's surf. From
Ochre Point across to Cormorant Rock or
Sachuest Point, a bit to its north, is per-
haps two miles. Across this distance at
most times can be seen only shimmering
ripples dancing in the sunlight. A mile
and a half to the north lies the beach, a
perfect semi circle opening to the South.
Let the sea at the mouth of this sunny
cove have but a face of ripples, a mile
from the beach the eye can trace the
forming of gentle undulatlons, far sepa-
rate at first, but moving forward with in
creasing height, volume and nearness,
and. as they advance, as gradually but
regularly shaping from parallel into convex
lines. Soon these have become tremen-
1ous waves. Suddenly at the crest of the
foremost one, as if an electric spark had
lit the whole coastwise, advancing disc, a
spumy and almost detached crest
seems to hover above, and in quick
succession, this catches the delicate
rim upon scores and scores that follow
Seen obliquely from the shore, it all is as
massed column after column of soldiery in
blue, with a million tremulous cockades OF
white above; but from the beach, or with
the bathers in the cleaning sands, 1t is as
though ten-thousand milk white chargers
with foam f1ecked heads reared before you
for a final onslaught. In calm or storm.
it is ever the same. As though the spirit
of the ocean itself had contrived with all
genial artifce for the winning of man to
pleasant dalliance within Its loving EN-
brace, this beach and this graudest of all
surfs seem to WOO to earliest comiugs and
latest carvings. And little wonder is it
that the Newport season is still at its
height when all other coastwise places are
drear and lone, and does not close until
long after the leaves have turned to Grim
son and gold the shores OF Narragansett
Bav.
You would needs be here but n little to
know a
STILL PLEAsANTER SIDE
to old Newport town. This is a good and
olden face shining out of unpretentious
plenty and a mellow perspective of his,
toric age. Back behind these palaces of
arrogance stand charming old homes
where the real old aristocracy of Newport
in calm content looks out upon the blare
and glare of the fiimsier folk and time.
You and | who know how to enjoy
America afoot may travel far and long
before we can find such homes as these;
and it is a pleasant thing indeed to loiter
along the almost silent thoroughfares, fire.
quently only disturbed by the querulent
sparrow, or the sudden descent of the
first frost bitten leaves, enjoying the
quaint beauty of the surroundings, or in
fancy re peopling the more Anticipated
homes with the men and women of those
last century days when manor. house and
hall were enlivened by beauty, wit and
grace of courtlier mold than will aver be
known in Newport again.
There are no American cities, unless
they be old Portland and Salem towns,
where the colonial and revolutionary re.
gimes have so left their wide and ample
formings upon architecture and thorough
fare as here. Go where you will, stand
where you may, the eye ranges along
messed walls by lane and street, catches
summers of light beyond shaded vistas
Of overarchIng elms, rests generally upon
some cappings of which our time knows
not, sees
AMPLITUDE M HOSPITALITY
behind great colonnaded porches, finds
perched above century old tree tops, bal
comics of such curve and Torture as only
old Nuremberg can everywhere boast,
lights upon dormer window and ''hipped"
roof of such ponderous measurement as
only the famous old sea captains could
dream in their most exaggerated square
rigged' dreams, and rests here, there
and everywhere, upon time mellowed